CCPL Resource Tools News...

Value Line Research Center is now available to Charleston County Public Library (CCPL) card holders at home and at all branches. Previously, the product was only available at select branches. In the amount of time we have had the product, patrons have been using it at home for the first time and the response has been positive.

On the other hand, in the news category, the CCPL Books in Print database was not renewed. Gale has also lost the rights to add new issues of Consumer Reports and Consumer Reports Annual Buying guide to General OneFile and other sources.

Newsbank Gets Video Content

Video content is now available on Newsbank. Sources vary such as large market CBS, NBC and ABC affiliate television stations to traditional Newswire sources providing video content such as the Strange News Broadcast from the Associated Press (AP) to Chiiki.tv specializing in Life and Leisure.

Mygazines.com Profiled.

Lifehacker has a story on Mygazines.com. The website has scanned printed pages of very popular magazines freely available online in a graphically pleasing format. There is no telling how long the website will be up, as publshers are seeking to stop alleged copyright infringement according to Yahoo News. Magazines such as Domino, Fine Homebuilding, Martha Stewart Living and other titles are coming up on Mygazines.

Historical Newspapers - Treasured Sources...

America's Historical Newspaper is a great source for original primary source materials. There are wonderful primary source articles covering the titanic sinking, civil war, world war I, and all the way back to 1690. Overall, this resource is rather solid. Keep in mind that the text is scanned so if you search for genealogical information on say the family name of "Volkman" you may get some results centered on "workman" instead. My favorite part of this resource, for example, was reading an article about the Chicago World Series Championship season back in 1908. One game was called due to darkness in the 12th inning. This resource tool was recently added to the website.

Sports Illustrated has 53 Years of Issues Online

Sport Illustrated Vault has 53 years worth of the Sports Illustrated (SI) magazine issues currently available online for free. The content comes in various formats in articles, magazine covers, video clips and galleries. In reading BeSpacific, I stumbled onto the SI website this afternoon. I found what I was looking for being Ron Santo's picture on the cover of a June 30th, 1969 issue of SI and Ryne Sandberg making the cover in 1992. By the way, the Chicago Cubs baseball team is facing a rather long draught of not winning the world series: 100 years and counting.

Periodicals and E-Book Availability via PowerSearch

Looking for an elusive title or just want to browse a magazine online? The publication search within PowerSearch can combine the majority of the Gale periodical and ebook databases. The general databases such as Academic OneFile or General Reference Center and General OneFile are within the currently 17 available cross searchable databases while 14 are not. There are other sources within Research Tools such as Newsbank with a list of popular magazines not included within any of Gale databases and depending upon the type of popular magazine needed Newsbank is worth looking at. The Publication search is also good at finding EIU Country Reports or Fodor's travel guides based on cities or regions. Bottom line, publication search within PowerSearch is a great and practical tool to use.

America's Newspapers is Newsbank with Updates.

Newsbank recently got an upgrade and a name change that was made on the ccpl.org website to America's Newspapers. The sources for the most part remain the same with the addition of web sources. Keep in mind that newspapers of record (Chicago Tribue, LA Times, San Franciso Chronicle and the Washington Post) are available in-library only while the other sources are home access available. The create e-mail alert service was not working as far as I could tell at this time, but it is still a great source. Overall, these enhancements have added additional value to the database.

Post & Courier - 2000 to Recent Issues Available

The Post & Courier content backfiles from Jan 5th, 2000 to recent issues are now working again in the Custom Newspapers and PowerSearch databases. Earlier this Summer, large chunks of issues dissappeared leaving a handful of days worth of content out of 365 days a year for years such as 2003. Typically, a person will find about 30 or so articles depending on if it was a busy or slow newsday, in each issue of the newspaper with a local or regional focus with feature articles. Most of the recent issue content was not affected over the Summer and Fall by this gap in content. Keep in mind that individuals also have index coverage of the Post & Courier (1994 to current) , including a death index, with the Post & Courier Index that is maintained by the Charleston County Public Library This database not require a library card or in branch only use. Bottom line, you can once again access Charleston and regional area news coverage with backfiles for Post & Courier content again within Custom Newspapers/PowerSearch databases from Jan 5th 2000 to recent issues in full text.

NY Times Archives Free - (1851-1922)

The New York Times has unleashed their historic collection of Newspaper content (1851 - 1922) and (1987 to Present) for free. Some content from (1923 - 1986) will continue as fee based content. One thing I have learned about technology and content, it is hard to make predictions... Today, is one of those days where just the right amount of yeast goes in to the dough to make wonderful bread. Apparently the NY Times has figured it is easier to make money from advistisers (and more of it) then to charge indviduals for historic content by subscription or pay as you read and go content. I would encourage you to kick the tires on the NY Times website. As a side note, If you know of other historic newspapers online for free, please add these as a comment...

NY Times Announcement 9/1/8/07

NewsPaper Content For Free websites...
http://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/

Academic OneFile vs Expanded Academic.

The recently added DISCUS database, Academic OneFile has ~ 8,700 serial titles in index, abstract, or full-text form while Expanded Academic has ~4,200 titles in similar form. The audience of those seeking scholarly material will like Academic OneFile for the encyclopedia titles covering world biographies, literature, medicine, and science. The newer database also has the New York Times Newspaper from 1995 to current. Bottom line, Academic OneFile has more content than Expanded Academic in scholarly material.

Database Tips – Read Product Reviews Online

Do you need the latest reviews on refrigerators or other products from the comforts of home or in the library? The General Reference Center database includes numerous consumer oriented magazines such as Consumer Reports, Real Simple, and others.
For further reading click the following link.
For further reading click the link below.

The Charleston County Public Library - Resources section of the website under Magazines, Newspapers and Journals lists several sources that provide product reviews. Within the list look for the General Reference Center name and then the links for In-Library or Home Access use. A Charleston County Public Library Card is required for home access. Select one of the links based on your location.

After logging into General Reference Center, the default is the subject search menu option, which should appear after logging in. Find the first text box labeled Subject Guide Search: and then insert word(s) of interest such as "refrigerators" in the text box.

You can click [Search] menu option or the [enter] key to search all sources in the database. There is also the option to just look in a handful of titles for reviews. To limit results look for the “by publication title:” and enter in: Consumer Reports or you can select from a limited list of periodicals with the link labeled "Browse Publication Titles". Once again, to execute the search press the [Enter] key on your keyboard or select the [Search] menu block icon for results.

A list of various articles in full text or citation form should appear when available.

Steven S.

Additional product review sites are:
E-Pinions.com
Amazon.com